78 



Abstract of a Meteorological Journal. 



spirit and sulphuric acid, under circumstances precisely similar to 

 those in which sulphate of etherine is produced in such small 

 quantity. We may therefore conclude, from the close analogy 

 which exists between the reactions of pyroxylic spirit and alco- 

 hol, that the sulphate of etherine is in the retort, the sole product 

 of the decomposition of the sulphovinic acid, as the sulphate of 

 methylene is of the sulphomethylic acid ; but that being unlike 

 the sulphate of methylene, incapable of distillation, it yields as a 

 result of its decomposition, the substances which we actually 

 obtain. 



Art. YII. — Abstract of a Meteorological Journal, for the year 

 1838, kept at Marietta, Ohio, Lat. 39^ 25' iV., and Long. 4^ 

 28' W. of Washington City ; by S. P. Hildreth. 



Remarks on the year 1838. 



In reviewing the changes of the past year, we find it marked 

 by several striking peculiarities. In it we find greater extremes 

 of heat and cold, drought and moisture, than noticed in any other 

 for a long period of time. The mean annual temperature is con- 

 siderably below that of this climate, being only 50.62 ; which 

 we should consider remarkable, when we remember the great 

 heat and dryness of the summer months. The excess of caloric, 



